Grey Goo: Star Fox Chronicles
by Mr. Hybrid
Summary: The Silent Ones have fallen, the Humans, Morra, and Goo have won! But now, Meta-X, the first emergent personality of the Goo not created with help from the other three, has decided to resume the Goo's original mission, but this time, aided by a supercharged Keyhole device absorbed into it's form, Meta-X will visit other Universes.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Star Fox © Nintendo/Namco, Grey Goo © Petroglyph Games, OC (Meta-X) © Me. Feedback &amp; constructive criticism appreciated!

**Grey Goo: Meta X Chronicles: Part 1**

=Prologue=

[Moon Mountain Pass | Sauria]

A lone FireCrawler was strolling around, sniffing around for prey and avoiding the Kalda Chom that were prominent in this part of the region. It was dark out, nighttime. The FireCrawler looked up briefly when it saw a flash on the wall-like hills around it. It stared for an instant, then turned away to stalk a couple GrubTubs that were in a bush. The flash from the hill was, in actuality, a Cornerian biologist, studying Saurian wildlife. He photographed the FireCrawler again, then sat down to rest for a bit. He stared up at the stars for a bit, and thought back to one of the planets visible in the sky: Corneria. He was homesick, even though he could return home at any minute. Thoughts home were interrupted when out of the blue, there was a bright flash, followed by something spiraling to life. It resembled a Warp in a way, but something about it was noticeably different, as if there was part of a "tunnel" forming it.

He grabbed his camera to photograph the anomaly. A couple pictures later, something shot out of it, falling down toward the planet, right over Moon Mountain Pass! The object struck the ground, scaring many small life-forms away from it, including the FireCrawler he was studying and the GrubTubs that it was stalking. Curious, the biologist grabbed his camera and headed down toward the impact site, which was rather small by comparison. _The object must not have been that big_, he thought as he walked up to the crater. What surprised him was the fact that, the "object" (if it could be called that) was moving around on its own will, flowing out of the cracks in the ground. It was moving away from him for the most part, but that didn't stop him from stepping away. The thing was starting to exhibit unusual characteristics for what constituted as life. It was a sleek black liquid, with the surface of the liquid covered in blue hexagonal outlines that, if one measured from each angle to its opposite angle, was maybe an inch big per hexagon. Electric current was visible, but largely faint throughout the "organism." It didn't seem to show an interest toward any of the local fauna, instead going for a small patch of moss, where it spread out over the moss. The liquid seemed to bubble and spasm a bit, then shriveled back into a tiny ball, revealing a cleaned patch of rock, and a blue patch of crystal under it, which the ball deposited itself on top of. The biologist hurriedly got out his camera and took a couple photographs, certain that the being wouldn't be able to see him. It didn't react to the flashes, instead focusing on the crystal patch it was on top of. The electrical charges had become more visible and the hexagon net pattern glowed with consistent pulses not unlike a heartbeat. The biologist hurried away, intending to report this new discovery immediately.

It was too small, way too small. It couldn't even be a Small Protean at this point, rather a simple Seed Goo, smaller than the unformed balls of Goo used as ammunition by Crescents. It was roughly the size of a Morra's hand. The crystal resource it was currently harvesting was compatible for Nanobot construction, not to say that most molecules weren't, but it was being selective with what it consumed so as not to potentially damage the ecosystem of this new world. Meta-X pondered for a bit, it had been three years since then, and during that time, the Goo was starting to develop a personality for itself, or rather, many personalities, but with the guide of the Humans and the Morra and the Goo's own model, Singleton. Meta-X itself had evolved a consciousness all on its own, but wasn't noticed until it made the decision to leave and explore the cosmos, much like the Goo's original purpose was. Of course, it had found a Keyhole device that went much, _much_ farther than any ever had. This particular one was supercharged on Catalyst so much that it crossed the void to reach _other universes_. Meta-X had essentially discovered the proof needed to prove the existence of the Multiverse, and had dedicated itself to exploring some of the neighboring universes that it could physically visit.

Meta-X then noticed the flashes and upon sensing the environment, picked up on a bipedal life-form carrying technology that it didn't yet recognize. It briefly wondered if the being was a scout of some sort, but left the subject in its mind to revisit later, right now it needed to focus on _growing_.

[Great Fox | Somewhere in the Lylat System]

"...And that's where you come in, Star Fox. You're to return to Sauria and locate this new life-form. But exercise caution, we think it may have some connection with the Aparoids." General Pepper informed the crew of the Great Fox. Fox saluted the General, "Roger that, General, we'll find this life-form and secure it!" The General nodded and grinned to the crew, "I know you will." With that, the General disconnected from the call, leaving Star Fox among themselves. Fox turned to Krystal and asked her, "Will you accompany me on the surface?" Krystal chuckled and replied, "It's because I know the surface better than you, isn't it? And yes, I will." Fox gave her a nervous grin, then asked Falco, "While Krystal's with me on foot, will you, Katt, and Miyu provide aerial surveillance?" Falco shrugged, "I always did prefer the air, at least we can keep an eye on you lovebirds." Fox blushed, "Falco, come on..." The bird shrugged again, "What? I ain't allowed t' tease ya because you're the leader?"

"Fay, Slippy, you'll be on stand-by in case they need repairs." Fox then noticed Saru, who stared ahead with a largely indifferent expression. "Saru? You'll monitor with Peppy, ROB, and Fara." In truth, Fox probably could have done something other than have him sit around, but the truth was that they simply didn't need any more teammates down there than what they were going with. Saru made an unintelligent noise that meant "yes." then muttered about how his talents were wasted as he took up residence in one of the empty seats below Peppy's desk. Fara patted his back, "Maybe next time, aye?" Saru made no effort to hide his disdain for being left behind again and Fara turned to Fox and frowned. Fox sighed, "Saru, next time, and that's a promise."

[ThornTail Hollow | Sauria]

Two Arwings landed in a clearing in ThornTail Hollow and the pilots jumped out. Krystal pulled out her staff and Fox got out his blaster. Krystal had advised Fox against bringing his blaster, but he had managed to persuade her with the fact that General Scales wasn't around anymore and his would-be army wasn't a threat anymore. Krystal still kept her staff, instead of going for a blaster. If there was one thing that wasn't easily obvious with Fox, it was his respect for some of the smaller, cultural things that people had or did. There were exceptions, everything had exceptions. The laws of physics could make an exception under the circumstances, even if it meant new laws were to be made. Fox checked in with the three in the sky, "Any luck so far?"

Miyu checked in first, "There's residual energy over Moon Mountain Pass, presumably warp energy, but I can't get a good enough scan of the place until it dissipates, it's interfering with my scanners." Shortly after her, Falco spoke, "I'm flying over SnowHorn Wastes, I can't find anything even remotely resembling an Aparoid, not a single one." Katt's voice came through last, "There's no Aparoids above ground near the DarkIce Mines. Maybe you could ask one of the locals about it if they've seen anything?"

Fox took up on her suggestion, "Krystal, why don't you go talk to some of the ThornTails and see if they know anything related to the anomaly?" Krystal grinned at Fox, then mounted her staff on her harness. The staff retracted into a form small enough it could fit in a backpack. She then walked away in the direction of one of the nearest ThornTails, pausing to wave back to Fox. Fox blushed, but waved back, then thought about checking in with one particular local, this particular one being one of a few that he wasn't too happy about seeing again. He knew he might have to at some point, but wasn't keen on the idea.

"Yes, I do recall seeing something at one point, a large portal, I briefly saw it over Moon Mountain Pass, while I was traveling to meet a friend. Something arrived from the portal, and when I flew over, there was something there that... It's difficult to describe exactly what it was, but the simplest I can say is formless. Small and formless." The CloudRunner replied to Krystal's inquiry. "Small and formless... Thank you for your help, dear CloudRunner," Krystal replied in Dino, the native language of Sauria. The CloudRunner flew off, having visited briefly for trade, carrying off the supplies it had traded for. Krystal waved to it, then, while going to talk to the next ThornTail, thought about this new information, _Small and formless... Well, it would be able to get around easily... If it is related to the Aparoids, I might be able to sense it, but this does narrow down the search quite a bit, and considering that Moon Mountain Pass is frequently mentioned, that narrows down the possible locations it could have gone since it's landing_. Krystal made note to tell the others about this as soon as she met up with Fox again.

"I'm telling ya, I don't know nothing about no warp or no Aparoids, now either buy something of get **out**!" Shabunga growled at Fox, who wisely shied away. Fox never liked the ShopKeeper very much, he always forced him to pay hefty prices for things, and the fact that he seemed almost ethereal at times bugged him to no ends. Fox made haste out of the shop, disappointed that he got nothing from the ShopKeeper. He ran into Krystal immediately after getting out of the shop. Krystal was the first to speak, "One of the CloudRunners who was trading here said he spotted what might have come out of the warp over Moon Mountain Pass. He described it as being small and formless. A ThornTail who had gone that way for MoonSeeds said he spotted a FireCrawler attempting to attack something that he described as a liquid shadow veiled in a blue net." Fox smiled and scratched the back of his head, "Wow, you're good at this! I... got nothing." Krystal giggled, "Oh Fox, you don't need to be embarrassed, no-one's perfect." He would have blacked out right there if biology worked like that, but the most he could come up with was an embarrassed blush. He contacted the rest of the crew, "Krystal found a lead, we'll be going to Moon Mountain Pass tomorrow morning."


	2. Chapter 1: Questionable

=Chapter 1: Questionable=

[Moon Mountain Pass | Sauria]

The crystal it was harvesting was almost gone. Meta-X wasn't too happy about that development. It had hoped to get bigger than its current size, but this size was only about twice as large as a Seed Goo. If it formed itself into a cube, it would be, according to its own estimate, each measurement would be 18 inches. That was insufficient mass. It would be forced to explore a bit more. Meta-X slipped out of the small hole where the crystal resource it had found was, and began flowing and slithering around, searching for more resources it could safely consume. It's mass played a factor when it used its newfound dimension traveling power, most of it would be lost when it used that power. It still had a Mother Goo back home, in its original dimension, for if this extension of it were obliterated while in another dimension, but secretly, Meta-X was hoping it wouldn't be destroyed. With the recent development of personalities, emotions and feelings were included in the package. If Meta-X were harmed in some way in this universe, the pain would most certainly be felt by the Mother Goo that sent it, as it was an extension of that Mother Goo. Meta-X began to feel homesick, missing its home Universe, even if its mission was just as important.

Something pinged in Meta-X's mind and it began sensing the area, picking up on life-forms not unlike the biped it had sensed much earlier. Upon sensing technology among the two life-forms, Meta-X realized they were intelligent. It scanned the environment for a suitable hiding place, but this alien land had very little, save for the occasional shadow, which Meta-X had to stick to.

"The energy's dissipated somewhat, but the clearest scan I can get is that there's a number of creatures down there. I can't identify individual creatures or anything of the sort yet." Miyu replied to the two vulpines as they walked through one of the paths in Moon Mountain Pass. Fox sighed, "Thanks anyway, just keep scanning. Maybe soon, you can get a clear enough scan of the local life." Slippy's voice came through unexpectedly, with some interference as the two moved deeper into Moon Mountain Pass, "Fox! I've figured out a way to compensate for the interference! The energy causing the interference has dissipated mostly in the lower part of the atmosphere, so all Miyu needs to do is fly lower and bounce the signal between her Arwing and your com-links!" Fox was about ready to mute the toad's voice, when his ears perked up and he glanced at the wrist-mounted, watch-like device that was his communicator, "Wait, so we can actually get a scan of the place?" Slippy confirmed it, "After that, she can send the scans to the Great Fox by flying higher and out of the interference." Krystal's ears perked up after Fox's, "We could try it. If it means we can find where this thing is, then I would go for it." Fox contacted Miyu, "Did you get that?" Miyu nodded, regardless of whether Fox could see her or not, "Descending to a lower altitude."

It sensed an aircraft high above and tried to pull itself deeper into the shadows. It had managed to locate a rock of decent size to hide under. However, it hadn't accounted for the fact that it had a "natural" (such as it was) luminescence that it could only dim. Flashbacks to when it was just another part of the Goo during the war came to its mind, with aircrafts flying overhead and raining Hell on it and its "siblings." It then noticed that the two life-forms were communicating with the aircraft and attempted to intercept it. The language spoken was unknown to Meta-X, but it was able to hack into the aircraft's data banks and locate a dictionary. It downloaded the language and translated it into a language it could understand easier: Binary code. As a mechanical organism, it had the capacity to understand languages by virtue of translating them into binary code, which gave it the advantage of being able to speak in other languages, even if not that good.

"Alright, I've finished scanning the area. Wait... I don't get it..." Miyu's confusion attracted Fox and Krystal to their com-links. "It says that there is an incredibly large amount of robots in the area!" Krystal grabbed her staff and surveyed the area, staff pointed ahead. A second passed and she spoke what Fox was thinking, "Where are the robots?" Miyu's replied confused them even more, "That's the thing, it says that all these robots are clustered together somewhere." Fox went on ahead and threw an idea out there, "Are you certain that the thing's working properly?" There was silence on the other end for a while, then Miyu replied, "I could go and have Slippy check it out." Fox could here Miyu mumbling with no attempts to conceal her irritation, "I know that this piece of shit was still functional when we left the Great Fox..."

Out of the corner of his eye, Fox saw something slip out from a rather odd shaped rock, very quickly, away from them. He turned toward the shadow with his blaster ready and fired at the shadow. A few shots missed, but one struck the shadow and it flinched, making a screech, and moving right back to the rock. Fox charged up a plasma ball to destroy the rock, when Krystal stopped him, "Fox, wait a second." Fox glared at her, then softened up a bit as she spoke, "You need to learn to read a creature's actions before you assume that it's hostile." Fox shrugged, "Shoot first, ask later. Comes with the job." Krystal gave an irritated sigh, then retracted her staff and put it in the harness she had crafted long ago for it. She walked up to the rock it was hiding behind. To her surprise, she couldn't sense anything from the being's mind, if it had one. Peeking behind the rock and doing her best to appear nonthreatening, she tried to speak to the creature, "Hello? It's okay... I'm not going to hurt you." The being, which she noted as matching the descriptions from the locals back in ThornTail Hollow, still moved away, clearly scared. The hexagonal pattern on its surface pulsed rapidly, as if trying to scare her off. Krystal ignored the hollow threat and tried again, "I'm sorry if my friend scared you... He's a bit tense with a gun." The "creature" slowly crept toward her, extending a pseudopod toward her. Krystal held her hand out as a sign of trust. The being's pseudopod brushed against her palm, almost as if it were tasting her, then retracted the pseudopod and crept toward her. It flowed toward her legs, pooling around one boot and a large mound arose, rubbing against her leg as a sign of affection.

Meta-X decided that it liked the blue furred creature, given her more peaceful attitude toward it and acceptance of its nature. It decided to attempt to communicate and broadcast bits of Binary code at her communicator, hoping she would realize that it was intelligent. It then realized that the one that shot it, the tan male, was standing right there. Impulsively, two pseudopods wrapped around the leg of the blue one.

Krystal was surprised at the childlike nature of the being, but not as surprised as she was when her com-link began speaking in a voice not unlike a bunch of synchronized voices, saying, "01001001 01100011:01101111:01101101:01100101 01101001:01101110 01110000:01100101:01100001:01100011:01100101." Confused by the sudden usage of numbers, she asked Fox about it. Fox only shrugged, "It's some kinda code, no idea what it means though. ROB might know about it." Miyu's voice broke into the conversation, "I've checked with Slippy, he says my scanner is perfectly fine. Whatever is down there, it's simply coming off as a... Wait." There was a pause, then she asked the duo, "Did you find it?" Fox replied, "Yeah, it seems to be harmless, but it's kinda hard to describe what it is we just found. It doesn't appear to be associated with the Aparoids, but then again, there shouldn't be any Aparoids left. We'll bring it back to the Great Fox, but I advise being careful. It is to be isolated until we can figure out what it is, then report to the General."

[Great Fox | In orbit over Sauria]

Everyone was called back to the Great Fox. With some coaxing, Krystal managed to get the new creature into her Arwing, it took refuge in her cargo hold while she took it back to the huge dreadnought. Once everyone was in the docking bay, Krystal brought the creature out of the cargo hold, the very nature of it surprising the rest of the crew, and, understandably, freaking most of them out. There was a single exception, ROB 64. The robot proceeded to scan the life-form that Krystal had found, then gave an in-depth description of its results, "Analysis shows: life-form is comprised of virus-sized robots loosely packed together into a liquid state. Nanobots appear to be linked through telepathic signals emitted from and/or channeled through certain Nanobots acting as neurons. Surface analysis of intercepted programming shows that it is designed as an exploration device. Creators unknown. One Nanobot is capable of converting a set amount of molecules into another Nanobot. Stray signals show that the device is capable of converting anything into more Nanobots, but chooses to limit itself to prevent damaging ecosystems, and is capable of communication through binary code."

Krystal's ears perked up at the mention of binary code, "I did get this message in my com-link." She showed ROB a holographic version of the message. ROB sent a signal in the form of a beam of light to the hologram, translating the code into the Cornerian language, creating the following message, "I come in peace." They glanced at the formless mass that had begun clinging to Krystal's leg again. Krystal couldn't help but glance at her hand, where the slime had touched it. The idea that she could be converted into mass for a liquid machine disturbed her to a considerable extent. If it couldn't read thoughts, then it had to be programmed to sense certain hormones, because it let go of her leg and started sliding toward the Arwings. It attempted to hide under the Arwing, much to the group's slight irritation. Fox began rethinking what he had said earlier, "You know what, as long as General Pepper doesn't find out that we have it, I think we can allow it to wander the Great Fox." ROB observed the mass as it dared peek out from under, "Suggestion: It may still be developing into a more mature state. Feeding it is advised, though habits and preferences are unknown as of now."

{_Later_...}

Slippy walked out of the Great Fox's cargo hold after a while. Peppy and ROB were just outside. The old hare asked Slippy, "You learned anything from our guest?" Slippy nodded, "Yeah! Apparently, this thing, which calls itself Meta-X, is part of something called the Goo, which came from another universe. In this universe, they were created by a race called Humanity, which was used to chart the stars and search for alien life. They lost contact with the humans, but shortly afterwards, they encountered a race they called the Silent Ones, who posed a threat to every living being in their galaxy. They evolved into a war-like race in an attempt to fight back, but there was a conflict involving the human race and another called the Morra. There was a robot called Singleton who was absorbed into the Goo, but retained his individuality and negotiated peace between the three factions in time to fight back against the Silent Ones. After that, Meta-X became its own being and returned to the Goo's original programming." Peppy only stared, then asked, "Is there anything else?" Slippy shook his head, "Nothing else that I can get out of it right now." Peppy, putting on his best smile, told Slippy he could leave, then made a quite groan and touched his forehead, "Dammit, I'm getting tired of his complicated, convoluted, and drawn out explanations of simple things." ROB responded with a simplified version of Slippy's story, "Paraphrasing: Meta-X comes from a universe that won a war against enigmatic monsters and resumed the Goo's original purpose as an explorer."

Meta-X had actually gotten to know the life-forms occupying this transport. One of them walked into the room that it was currently occupying. This one was a blue bird-like humanoid. It greeted the being by making a pulse across its surface, then taking note of the idea for later. The being responded by crossing his arms, "So you're our little guest, huh? I've heard a lot about you thanks to Sir No-Indoor-Voice from a minute ago." Meta-X wobbled and made various mechanical noises in an attempt to communicate. Falco, the being's name, was oblivious to the communication, "Krystal and Slippy have already taken a liking to ya, but don't for a second that means you're gonna have an easy stay here." Meta-X slid up the side of a crate to get to higher ground, if so it could attempt to talk to Falco. Falco watched it and spoke to it, "Everyone pulls their weight around here in some way. While Fox may not appreciate me telling ya what t' do, my suggestion is that ya find something useful t' do around here during your stay." Falco then reached into his jumpsuit and pulled out a small blue crystal rod. Meta-X was surprised at his generosity. "Consider this a 'Welcome' gift, if this is what ya eat." Falco tossed the crystal to Meta-X, who caught it and absorbed it, utilizing the accumulated molecules almost immediately to make more Nanobots. Falco was a bit disturbed at Meta-X's immediate consumption and integration of the crystal's mass into it's body, "Maybe we can find somewhere for ya t' hide out. Could make it harder for them t' weaponize ya." Meta-X had a vague idea of what he meant, but given its lack of knowledge concerning the culture of the local people, it had no idea of how to respond beyond pulsing, whirring, and beeping. Falco sighed, "If only I could understand ya."

[Author's Notes]

→ Feedback/Constructive Criticism encouraged!

→ This is my first time incorporating binary code into a story. I didn't make any of it up, I actually did my research on binary code and am trying to make it as close to accurate as realistically possible, but no guarantees that I got it perfect. Anyone who wants to let me know about any mistakes concerning binary code is welcome to.


	3. Chapter 2: Quest for Something to eat

=Chapter 2: The Quest For Something to Eat=

~x~X~x~X~x~

It was starting to piece together what was going on, here on this incredible dreadnought they called the Great Fox. They were keeping it hidden, and while it wasn't happy, it was more inclined to find the reason for that. What it had pieced together was that the Star Fox team was hiding it from at least two parties, both of which would probably use it for malicious purposes, which it still needed to determine. In the meantime, however, Meta-X's growth directive was resuming priority. It had spent a good amount of time here without doing so. It decided, today, it would have to do something about that.

A knock on his door and Slippy peeked up from his computer, "Come in!" The door opened and Slippy, upon recognizing who it was, tensed a bit. "Hey Slip, just curious about our guest. Everything going well?" Fay's voice, lovely as it was to Slippy's ears, was distracting and when he peeked back at his screen, he noticed a few typos in his report. He corrected the errors as he replied, "Yeah, everything is fine right now. Meta-X hasn't said much else since that time when I got all that info out of it." Fay leaned over his shoulder to see what he was doing, "You've got a report open there... What's that?" She pointed to an icon on the sidebar of his screen, it had a picture of line paper and a photo with a glowing line drawn through the center. He glanced at it, "I'm... I'm uh... I'm trying to find visual data about some of the subjects that Meta-X did mention. This program should convert any descriptions that I've found into a rough concept of the subject." Fay raised an eyebrow, "Do you have any pictures?"

Slippy showed her a few pictures, mostly of what he had determined to be the Humans and the Morra. He had a few more rough concepts, such as various "units" that the Goo could apparently create, a distorted image that supposedly represented the Silent Ones, various locations on planets in its home Universe, and even a mysterious element that the Goo used primarily for conversion called "Catalyst." Needless to say, Fay was intrigued, though mostly with the technological concepts they were able to put together. Fay, being mechanically minded, had been impressed with Meta-X from the beginning, even if she was a bit disturbed at first by what ROB had mentioned to be among Meta-X's abilities. It took Fay a second, but she asked Slippy, "You're the team's programmer too?" Slippy nodded, "ROB needs help with stuff like that every now and then. We only just got his processor upgraded to the latest version and in the process, we lost his concept visualizer among other things. I've been taking over until we get it properly installed again."

Meta-X slipped out through the ventilation shaft, and given its somewhat small size and malleable nature, this wasn't a problem. It sensed the environment around it and began rolling toward where it assumed it would find something they wouldn't miss. It pooled against the wall near one corner and peaked into the kitchen. Upon scanning around, it sensed the being calling herself Miyu, and across the room was Saru. It listened in to their conversation, "So, you've been hanging around here a lot lately, Saru... Something going on?"

"Aside from the lack of need to participate? Nothing."

"Come on, man. Someday, you'll get your chance."

"Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you."

"I'm serious!"

"...Yeah... Keep telling yourself that."

"...Fine, I'll admit it. You're not going on missions with us because Peppy's afraid that your resemblance to Andross will hurt our publicity."

"I thought you didn't care about that."

"I don't. Peppy and Fox are just about the only ones who do, and only because they don't want the press to put us in a bad image."

"Like they don't already?"

"That's just that one station, and for what it's worth, they're like that to every mercenary team out there."

"I have yet to see them slander Star Wolf the way they slander us."

"...I'll have to head to the nearest supply station soon, the fridge's almost empty."

"...That was abrupt."

"Look, if you're that angry about that one station, don't listen to them."

_Perhaps the kitchen is not the best place for us right now_, Meta-X thought as it slithered away, debating on where else it could visit for something edible. It slithered close to one of the doors, then paused as it opened. Fara walked out, immediately taking note of Meta-X, "What're you doing here?" Meta-X beeped and clicked, then resorted to broadcasting more binary code. Fara checked her wrist-mounted com-link, "01001000 01110101 01101110 01100111 01110010 01111001." She ran the translation program that Fox had made mandatory since Meta-X's arrival, "Hungry." The fennec fox raised an eyebrow, "We still don't know what you eat." More binary arrived and after running the translation, the raised eyebrow went even higher, "Falco."

He pulled into the hangar and let go of the controls as the docking claws grabbed his Arwing and guided it into the loading bay. The Arwing shut down and Falco let his arms fall to his sides. He was utterly bored. Aside from his usual business, he had managed to find a sizable chunk of asteroid that would fit in his Arwing's storage compartment. If Meta-X was truly capable of consuming anything, Falco decided he'd rather not be on the menu, especially since he couldn't recall the others paying much attention other than studying Meta-X. He got out of the cockpit, landing as the Arwing finished docking. He reached under his Arwing and pulled out the rock. It was small enough to hide there, but big enough, and dense enough that he needed two hands to carry. He turned around and looked up, then promptly dropped the rock in surprised as Fara crossed her arms, her face clearly a debate on whether or not she should be angry or amused. "Uh hey, Fara. What's up?" Fara stood straighter, "What's with the rock?" Falco tried to come up with an explanation, "Uh... It's- it's for my... rock collection!" Fara's expression changed to amused, "That's a bullshit excuse. I couldn't tell you how overused it is."

Falco drooped, "Fine... I was bringing it here because I discovered what Meta-X could eat." He stood straighter, "I wasn't sure how you guys would react to me doing that, since usually it's Slippy, ROB, or Fay that's the expert with machines. I just... I kinda..." He trailed off as Fara spoke what was on his mind, "You wanted to keep your vanity safe? Come on, Falco, it's not like I'm judging you." Falco sighed, "Yeah, I guess." Fara then chuckled, "After all, it's up to Fox and Katt to tease ya for caring." Falco tensed, "You wouldn't dare!" Fara burst out laughing. Genetics made sure that his feathers were blue at birth, but he felt like he was turning several shades of red right now from embarrassment. Fara calmed down a bit, "I'm just messing with ya!"

There was a hissing and splashing noise, and both of them glanced down to where Falco had dropped the miniature asteroid. Meta-X was pooling around the rock. It turned from gray to a dark shade of blue. Tiny globules flew from Meta-X onto the from as it seemed to collapse on itself. Falco jumped back and commented, "And here I though Slippy had poor table manners." Shortly after converting the molecules into Nanobots, Meta-X, now very visibly larger than before, chirped and beeped in delight. Staring at the robotic liquid as it pulsed and wobbled, Falco and Fara stood there for at least a minute, though they weren't certain why. Eventually, Meta-X flowed toward the duo, who backed up impulsively. A thought occurred to Fara, "How do we keep something like this hidden if it just grows like that?" Falco thought for a few long seconds, "We could ask Fox?"

~x~X~x~X~x~

Fox discussed the suggested idea with the rest of the Star Fox crew, and the general agreement was to take Meta-X to Fortuna. Recently cleared out of Andross's remaining army by the Cornerian Armada, plenty of forest, largely isolated from threats, and with the established outposts occupied by the Cornerian military currently. They deemed it an ideal place for Meta-X to stay temporarily, so it could follow its growth algorithm and study the natives. Peppy was about to prepare the Great Fox for warp when Fay brought up a point, "Wait, didn't you forget? The Cornerian Military work for General Pepper. While I'm certain that they'd have good intentions, they'd probably weaponize or exterminate Meta-X if it's discovered!"

That stopped the warp procedure before Peppy even initiated it as he realized what she said, "Oh damn. Good point. Warp aborted." Fox's eyes widened briefly as he remembered what he himself had said only a couple "days" ago, when Meta-X first arrived on the dreadnought. Time was a bit difficult to tell in space unless you had some sort of time-keeping device. His paw then pressed against his face as he muttered, "I'm such a moron." Krystal patted his back, "We all make mistakes." Peppy stood up from his chair and returned to the conversation, "If Fortuna's not a good place to put it, where do you suggest, Fay?" Fay froze, eyes wide. She hadn't thought past that part. She opened her mouth, but words failed her when she tried to speak, "Uh- Um- I-" Miyu interjected with a suggestion, "Katina. It's a desert, but it's still fairly rich in resources underground. It's only got one outpost there and as far as I'm aware, it hasn't been inhabited since the Aparoid Invasion for fear of any possible surviving Aparoids. It would be ideal, since the Cornerian Military won't go and risk a possible containment breach, the same reason that Andross's remnants wouldn't go there, no matter how rich the planet is." Fox raised an eyebrow, "You would know this how?"

Miyu gave him an explanation, "Before joining Star Fox, I was part of the scouting unit of the Cornerian Military two years ago. We were checking this planet out for a strategic advantage in the event of another war. We discovered large amounts of cobalt, silicon, iridium, platinum, and at least one uranium vein. The outpost was designed primarily as a Military outpost, but doubled as a mining outpost, hence why it was built above one large deposit of those resources." Fox nodded in understanding. In truth, he believed her story somewhat. Most of the members of Star Fox, Krystal, ROB 64, and Saru excluded, had military backgrounds before breaking away to become a mercenary team. Peppy or ROB could easily check the profiles of the crew, and Fox imagined they would be verifying that information soon. He thought about it for a while, "Well team, what do you think of the idea?"

Again, a general consensus of agreements among them, save for Fay, who was simply staring at Miyu, mouth agape, eyes wide, clearly impressed. The lynx nudged Fay, who shook herself out of her trance, then agreed, "Yep, I agree with you guys!" Grinning, Miyu crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at the collie. Fox gave a lopsided grin to the team, then turned to Peppy, "Set our course for Katina, Peppy." The old hare saluted him, "Will do, Fox."

~x~X~x~X~x~

"So, did ya hear the news?" Wolf sneered, "I don't watch the news." The ruffian tensed as Wolf turned to stare at him, the low lighting from the faulty generator making him a more intimidating silhouette illuminated only by the ambient blue glow of the device covering his left eye. The gray wolf growled to his subordinate, "Tell me, what are the news?" The grunt bowed, nervous that he might mess up and disappoint Wolf somehow, "One of our scouts returned from Sauria's debris field and reported Star Fox in the sector. He had hacked into their surveillance system and managed to find out about something Star Fox was supposedly hiding and that they were going to Katina." Wolf's gaze was unnervingly calm when he pressed for more, "Did the scout get any information on what Star Fox is hiding?" The grunt shook his head, "No sir, the firewall discovered him and kicked him out." The grunt winced, waiting for Wolf's temper. It never came, as Wolf marched to the grunt, "At ease." The grunt stood up, having bowed long enough. Wolf put his paw on the ruffian's shoulder, "Tell Panther and Leon for me that we have a new objective. Whatever Star Fox is hiding is important enough that they're willing to dump it on a desert planet to hide it." The grunt saluted Wolf, "Roger that, Wolf."


	4. Chapter 3: Accumulation

=Chapter 3: Accumulation=

~x~X~x~X~x~

The Great Fox flew out of the green portal above the arid desert planet below them, Katina. After the portal closed behind it, the Arwing hangar opened and two Arwings flew out. In one was Fox Mcloud, and in the other one were Krystal and Meta-X. They flew down to the planet surface. Krystal was a bit depressed at the thought of leaving Meta-X, even though she was certain it understood the reasons why. Prior to leaving the Great Fox, Fox promised Krystal that they would try to visit Meta-X whenever possible.

After landing, Krystal hopped out of her Arwing and opened the bomb compartment under her Arwing. Fox hopped out of his Arwing as Meta-X slid out of the bomb compartment. The Goo seemed to sense its surroundings and hugged Krystal's leg on impulse. Krystal looked up toward Fox as he met up with her, "And you swear upon the gods and goddesses that we will visit Meta-X again at some point?" Fox nodded, "I swear upon every single one that we will come back more than once. Maybe someday, it can come and properly study the Lylatian race. But right now, this is for the best. The Lylat system's unstable, what with Andross's remnants and the Cornerian Military being more active lately." Krystal's ears folded back and she looked toward Meta-X. The protean appeared to register that she wasn't happy about leaving it and whirred. Krystal held her hand out to Meta-X, who wrapped a pseudopod around her wrist. "I promise, I will visit eventually."

Meta-X briefly wondered if it should have protested staying behind, but as the two foxes returned to their Arwings, all Meta-X could do at the moment was broadcast binary, "I will miss you." It watched the two Arwings take off, and for the longest time of its life, just stared ahead, motionless beyond simple pulsating. The finality of the situation finally hit it, as far as it knew, this would be the last time it would see Krystal and Star Fox. It shriveled a bit, depressed now, before sensing its environment.

Almost immediately, Meta-X seemed to forget about Star Fox and go for the resources that it had sensed. It found a cobalt deposit not too far away and spread itself over it, hungrily converting the molecules into more Nanobots. As it did, it grew bigger, much bigger. After a long period of consuming, Meta-X had finally achieved a decent size for the more advanced exploring. It was at least the size of a Small Protean now, but by the standards of humans and Morra, that was pretty big. It just needed to find more resources that were on its list of things it could consume. It rolled away, leaving a cleaned hole in the ground as it made way for a stone arch up ahead. As it did, it dared to sacrifice a small portion of itself, a single piece that formed into a four-legged Drover, to aid it as a scout.

It had found at least three more deposits, one iridium, and two silicon deposits. In the process of using them, it had advanced to the stage that it now had maximum processing power for: the Mother Goo. As a Mother Goo now, Meta-X had only to gain a bit more mass, and finished consuming the iridium deposit. With enough mass now, it sacrificed a portion of itself to make a Small Protean of its own. If it was lucky, maybe it could find a renewable resource to exploit for mass, but the first thing it needed to do was get a proper layout of the land. The Small Protean split into four masses, each one gained four legs, and a large triangular head with a glowing, upside-down triangle for a face. The four Drovers joined the first one as Meta-X, through the Drovers, began exploring. Now that it had something with a camera, or something resembling it, Meta-X could finally perceive the environment visually. It looked through the leader Drover, finally seeing the location it had been dropped off on. The planet was a barren, desolate desert with mountains. It didn't like the look of the place, but it did like the opportunities. As it scanned, it saw even more deposits, including a uranium deposit off in the distance, a few miles away. Meta-X thought about the strategic value of going now, then scanned the environment near the Mother Goo. It was still rich in cobalt and silicon for the most part, so Meta-X decided that it would wait on the uranium deposit.

Instead, it had the Drovers patrol the large hill that it had started to think of as a temporary home. For once, Meta-X felt alive, if this excited pulsing could be called that, doing what it wanted to do, exploring new and strange life. The Drovers eventually reported seeing something off in the distance, not as far away as the uranium deposit, within "walking" distance. However, what was puzzling was the fact that the thing that Meta-X could see was not a natural construct. It became apparent that there was an outpost on the planet. It didn't look active, but for safety measures, Meta-X only sent two Drovers out to explore. In the meantime, it had gained more mass, enough for another set of Drovers, which it spawned in a moment's notice. While the two Drovers headed toward the outpost, Meta-X moved its Mother Goo up into a rocky alcove, where it made its hiding place for the event that it needed to hide, gaming a bit of extra mass in the process. Budgeting the mass into making a second Mother Goo, Meta-X was quite pleased that after a couple weeks of doing nothing, it was able to keep itself occupied and interested in current events. It burrowed into the hole it had made in the alcove and turned most of its attention to the two Drovers.

While the remaining seven stuck to guarding the Mother Goo, the two it had sent to explore that outpost were coming up to the outpost. Again, the lack of activity made it nervous, when it surveyed the walls of the outpost. It wasn't too big, maybe a quarter of a mile of surface area at most. There was a tower in the center, which Meta-X spotted when one of the Drovers climbed up the wall surrounding the entire base. There were vehicles, having fallen into disrepair from what Meta-X could only guess was a few years. And yet, the rest of the technology here was in a far better state. Meta-X could only guess that, if something hadn't happened and forced everyone to leave quickly, that whoever inhabited this outpost before hadn't taken many steps to keep the vehicles in good condition for whatever reason.

As one Drover stayed outside to patrol, Meta-X suddenly wondered if it should have sent more Drovers just in case. The other Drover carefully checked around inside for clues on what may have happened here. It stopped when it heard the familiar sound of the local spacecrafts in this system. The Drover looked around, turning to the sky to see a dreadnought that wasn't what it had registered as the Great Fox. The dreadnought was coming in for a landing and the Drover inside the outpost, realizing that it had no time to get out without being seen, scurried into the radio tower to hide, while the Drover outside the outpost tried to hide under some boulders.

Meta-X fidgeted in its hole when it sensed the fear from its Drovers. It wanted to get out there and defend its Drovers to its very last pulse, but it knew what they were scared of, and it was just as scared of going over there and risking its annihilation. It was forced to only watch events progress through its Drover that was in the outpost at the moment. What it saw wasn't too threatening at the moment aside from the dreadnought.

Two Lylatians wearing what appeared to be padded vests, metal boots, and helmets with visors walked out of the docking bay of the dreadnought once it landed. The Drover hiding in the tower entrance observed carefully, given that it could perceive sight and sound. The two were talking amongst each other, "This base has been abandoned for... what was it, two years?"

"Yeah, something like that. Supposedly this place was invaded by a parasitic life-form capable of possessing machinery and Lylatians."

"Well hot damn, no wonder this place gives me the creeps."

"You could say that again."

"Well hot da-"

"Figure of speech, look it up."

"Your call... dick."

"I'll ignore that and suggest you go check out that tower. If the equipment's intact, it means we can hopefully reduce the cost of reviving this outpost."

"Is that the correct term?"

"It's the first word that came to the author's mind."

"Say that again?"

"I said it's the first thing that came to my mind."

The Drover quickly dived out of the doorway as the Lylatian opened the door to the tower and walked in, a weapon of some sort drawn. The Lylatian pointed the weapon ahead of him, searching the room. He contacted the other Lylatian, "No dice on that 'intact equipment' goal. It's a miracle that the tower's still standing." The Drover attempted to intercept the communications with no luck, but guess on what the reply was, "Fine, I'm exaggerating a bit, but still. This is gonna cost us big time to get this outpost running again. ...Do you still want me to check the upper floors? ...Alright, but get your checkbook ready."

The Lylatian scanned the room again, this time turning on infrared vision to get a better look at the place. The generator may have been substantially damaged, this place wasn't getting any power. He looked around, then noticed one green spot outlined among the cold blue temperature readings in the room. Immediately, he pointed his gun and fired a charged blast in the direction of the creature. The creature, who the Lylatian had a hard time describing what it looked like beyond it being quadrupedal, panicked and made a break for the door, escaping as the Lylatian contacted his partner, "Tell the crew that there's something here! I think it might be an Aparoid!" The other Lylatian freaked out, "Shit! We've got an emergency! There's an Aparoid here! Shoot to kill!"

Bursts of plasma rained around the Drover as it made a beeline for the walls of the outpost, hoping to get out before it was destroyed. Drovers were the cheapest unit of the Goo to produce, which also meant that they were anything but the strongest unit. The Drover made its way to the wall and was about to start climbing when one laser cut through its head. It could survive given its unique physiology, but it hurt a lot and the Drover had lost the ability to properly see what was going on. It could still hear, and it heard a bunch of footsteps, followed by the sound of multiple guns being charged. The Drover realized that it was going to die, and it could sense Meta-X's utter hopelessness at being unable to help it. It then realized that someone had stopped the rest of them from firing.

"This isn't an Aparoid. I remember what they looked like and I know this isn't one." The soldier's voice sounded like salvation, if salvation was low-toned, and deep. One of the other soldiers pressed for answers, "And how do you know?" The Drover was starting to move mass into the hole in its head to restore its vision as the first one replied, "I was in the military at the time. I helped hold back the Aparoid forces while Star Fox and Star Wolf destroyed the Queen. I watched every Aparoid in existence die explosively when they succeeded. I know that this isn't an Aparoid because I watched their extinction happen." The Nanobots that were damaged were eventually repaired and the ones destroyed were recycled into new ones due to the free Nanobots that the Drover was able to spare. Its "eye" began glowing again as it got back onto its feet to turn and look at the soldiers. The one that had apparently defended it got in one knee and looked into the Drover's camera eye. There was a long period of staring, before the soldier, without even breaking eye contact, told the troops behind him, "This is a machine of some kind."

"How can you tell?"

"Look into the visor thingy. You can see programs running, like a facial recognizer. This thing's cataloging me."

"Why would it do that?"

"I can also see what looks like a map of the area. This thing's a scout. For what, I cannot imagine."

Meta-X realized that the soldiers weren't going to harm it and decided to send the other Drover in. The Drover crawled out from under the boulders it had taken refuge under and clambered up the wall of the outpost. It pinged on the first one's location and strolled toward it. Once above the first one, the second Drover slid down the wall to reunite with its brethren. The soldiers were surprised to see a second Drover and two of them both pointed weapons. They stopped briefly when one of the others noted, "Hey, they're the same model! If only we knew what model they were..." The Drovers glanced around, then tried beeping and clicking at the soldiers. The one who had defended the first Drover from death seemed to get that they were communicating with the Lylatians, "I think they're trying to tell us something. I'm not an expert in foreign languages or robotics, let alone foreign robotic languages." The Drovers started heading toward the tower, prompting the soldiers to follow. Meta-X had the Drovers search for any functional equipment. It had a message for the soldiers that the Drovers could use to communicate, given that they were currently only linked to Meta-X's Mother Goo to send back geographical data, not communicate with natives.


	5. Chapter 4: A Visit: Part 1

=Chapter 4: A Visit From Friends and Enemies: Part 1=

~x~X~x~X~x~

Given what the soldier had mentioned about not understanding robotic languages, and given that the Drovers only had limited communicative abilities aside from binary broadcast, Meta-X figured that if it could find a working terminal, which was actually harder than it thought, it could better communicate with the soldiers. Unfortunately, every single piece of electronics, save for those with a separate power source -flashlights, cell-phones, and the like- was off-line and inactive. It wasn't certain if the soldiers had figured out what the Drovers were trying to do, or if they had figured it out independently, but soon the soldiers split into groups and from what one of the two Drovers could hear, they were searching either for functional equipment or for materials to repair the generator.

One of the soldiers managed to find the generator itself, and reported that it was largely undamaged. The large, cylindrical device sat in the center of the room. It was two floors below ground level, and from the radiation levels his suit's Geiger counter detected, there was either a radiation leak or the generator was sitting atop a large vein of a radioactive element that had a vent into the room. "Run a quick system check. If the generator has a leak, that means we've gotta get a repair crew down here, otherwise we might fry ourselves if we turn it on. It would mean it's structurally unstable and could go into meltdown. I recall reading reports that this military outpost doubled as a mining outpost and was built above a massive uranium deposit. I'm not too sure what could happen if the radiation is coming from a vent located here, but run the system check first for safety." The soldier went up to the control booth. It had a window looking down on the generator. The computer, thankfully, ran on a separate power source, presumably for emergency purposes. He initiated a quick scan of the generator's integrity. Through that, he found where the source of the radiation leak was coming from and breathed a sigh of relief. The generator had a lid on it that he assumed would be opened either to put the fuel in or to check on the internal mechanisms. The radiation in the area was actually residual, as he pieced together, and not a leak at all.

"Sarge, system check indicates that there's no actual leak, it's been unsealed because the uranium core was removed. The radiation down here is residual," the soldier informed his superior officer via com-link. There was a bit of static as the sergeant replied, "Okay, well. There should be a spare in the floor above you. I've set my radar to scan for any radiation sources. Aside from the large deposit beneath us, I've picked up on a source in the first basement, above ya, and can only assume it's either the original core or a spare. Get that core into the generator and turn it on. The sooner the better. I think those robots are getting restless and any opportunity for Venomian ships to attack is one they will exploit to the max." The soldier obeyed and headed for the elevator.

Meta-X's Drovers exchanged brief "conversations" of binary transmission to try and pass the time. They reflected on what Fay had said about the Cornerian military. So far, they hadn't tried anything and Meta-X was beginning to doubt whether or not it had a reason to hide from the military or if it was mere paranoia. So far, there weren't any bombs being dropped around the Mother Goo or it's seven Drovers, which Meta-X was already planning on using to expand further. It considered that fact alone a sign of a good acquaintanceship. The Mother Goo hissed and beeped as it made the decision to slither out of its hiding spot. The Drovers in the base were still okay, other than one of them having fewer Nanobots than the other after being shot earlier. Meta-X decided that it would have to search for another resource deposit if it wanted to thrive enough to continue exploring the universes.

Holding the cylindrical container in his hand, the soldier climbed the ladder to the top of the generator, where the cap was. He opened it and inserted the uranium core, then closed the cap. The only thing left to do was to turn on the generator. Returning to the control room, the soldier flipped the switch, musing to himself, "Thousands of years since technology was invented and we've never changed On/Off switches." Lights began turning on and the generator produced a steady humming as internal mechanisms began moving, absorbing and redirecting the energy radiated by the carved hunk of uranium inside the capsule. More advanced machinery other than lights began turning on, such as ventilation, and the auto-repair sequence triggered when computers began turning on. Mechanical appendages manifested from various points to repair and/or replace damaged parts of the outpost.

"Sarge, I'm sure you've seen it by now, but we've got power." The sergeant's reply wasn't sarcastic like he had half expected, "Correct indeed, soldier. We have power and the robots seem less restless. Meet me upstairs as soon as possible." The soldier nodded, even if the sergeant couldn't see it, "Roger that, I'll join you momentarily."

The Lylatian watched them as the two Drovers immediately hurried to the nearest monitor as it started up. One of the Drovers stood on its hind legs and grabbed the table the computer sat on and began trying to jump onto the table. After three failed tries, the first Drover felt it's hind legs being lifted. The second Drover was using it's head as a stepping stone for the first one. It clambered onto the table and tapped the monitor to make sure that it worked. Gleeful that it did, it raised a foreleg and pressed it against the keyboard. The very tip of it's leg split into tiny tendrils that burrowed into the keyboard, assuming control of the keys. Drovers were created for observation, but the link that Meta-X had between its Mother Goo and the Drovers allowed it direct access to a method of communication that, bonus, allowed Meta-X to actually speak their language in a way. As the Lylatian sergeant, soon joined by his crew, Meta-X "spoke" it's first Lylatian word, "Hello." The Lylatian soldiers observed with no reaction, until one of the soldiers mustered the nerve to reply, "Hi."

There was a long, awkward silence between the two parties, before the sergeant pulled most of the soldiers away, telling the one that spoke to the Drovers to stay behind. The soldier decided to try and speak to the Drovers, by introducing himself, "I am David Pierre." Meta-X responded by introducing itself, "We are Meta-X, Probe Designation Zeta 795.331."

"Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

"So... what are you?"

"We are an artificial gestalt entity engineered for the purpose of exploration and expansion."

"Um... Can you- uh- repeat that, but simpler?"

"We are a robot made for exploring."

"You're robotic?"

"As one of your kind has already stated, we are a machine."

"But, you don't look like one."

"We repeat: We are an artificial gestalt entity."

"What does that mean?"

"We are made of a hundred quintillion nanobots, give or take a few million."

"'Give or take?'"

"These constructs before you are extensions of our senses. We see what they see, feel what they feel, hear what they hear, and so on. Creating constructs such as these takes away from our mass, requiring the conversion of foreign matter into nanobots to recover the lost mass."

"...Does that include things like us?"

"Should we feel threatened, we have ways of defending ourself other than conversion. It is still a viable option, but your kind has hardly shown hostile intent towards us."

"But I shot you earlier, aren't you at least a little pissed off?"

"It is illogical to hold onto a grudge, especially since it would have resulted because of a misunderstanding."

"So, you're not mad at me?"

"You speak as if you were expecting anger. We find your species to be quite interesting, psychologically and biologically speaking."

The other Drover, not currently needed, wandered around the base, and the soldier conversing directly with Meta-X noticed, given that such an alien device wasn't hard to notice. The Drover roamed around the computer room for a while, then heard the rest of the Lylatian soldiers speaking to each other. It trailed the hushed voices until it found them, standing in a line with the sergeant addressing them, "This thing, it's smart and it's powerful. We only need to teach it to take orders and it could be a very powerful ally against the Venomian armada. And if we can't convince it to join us, then we will have to make it do so. Once we get ahold of it, we'll need to figure out how it's built so we can manufacture more, but that has to wait until we get it." One of the soldiers raised his hand and spoke in a low voice level, "Permission to speak, sir! How would we force it to join us?" The sergeant turned around and without glancing at the inquiring soldier, answered, "Since we don't know if it's capable of resisting EMPs or not, we will have to employ conventional tactics. This thing is not to be killed, remember that. We will attempt to herd it into the ship first, and if that doesn't work, we render it unconscious. Since they are capable of resisting laser blasts, this may be difficult. Gentlemen, I am expecting nothing less than the best from you, now get to work!" The soldiers saluted the sergeant and the group was dismissed. The Drover, who had briefly peeked around the corner it had taken refuge behind, retreated and beamed the information back to the Mother Goo.

Chastising itself for not listening to Fox's warnings about the Cornerian Military, Meta-X called it's Drovers back to it. The Drover communicating with the soldier disconnected from the computer it was attached to mid-sentence and hopped off the desk. To buy itself some time, the Drover charged at the soldier as fast as it could and rammed him in the leg. Caught off-guard, the soldier fell over and hit the ground face-first. The Drover then joined it's companion for a mad dash out of the tower and out of the base. The soldier recovered and contacted the others about their potential ally going rogue, indicating that he was in on the plot, via personal com-link, while communicating with Meta-X. The squad rushed out of the tower after the Drovers and opened fire. A few lasers struck one of the Drovers and slowed it down as it tried to hurry. The other Drover was able to make it up the wall and to the top, where it turned around to try and help the other Drover up. The injured Drover scrambled up the wall, it's needle-like legs slipping out from under it as it tried to follow. Beams of energy struck the Drover as it's healthy partner reached toward it with one of it's appendages. Diverting nanobots to the appendage to lengthen it, the Drover had it's partner within reach when a red light shot through the climbing Drover. That last laser was powerful enough that it overloaded the nanobots composing the Drover. They collectively hit shutdown and the Drover fell off the wall, no longer glowing light blue hexagons as it struck the ground. A few nanobots were still active in the Drover, but not enough to get it moving again.

The remaining Drover turned and slid down the other side of the wall as the soldiers followed it. They fired at the Drover, with most of the lasers hitting home. At that point, Meta-X realized that it had to think about what it could do against the Lylatians. Changing the Drover's cartography camera into it's shotgun form wasn't going help it last very long as they Lylatian weaponry was already far stronger than it had predicted. The Drover was reaching critical health levels and Meta-X came to a decision. It sent one final signal to the Drovers by the base. Right as it stumbled and fell, the surviving Drover received the message and bounced it to the active nanobots in the other Drover. The Drover collapsed as the nanobots composing it initiated a self-destruct sequence. In a brilliant flash of fire and electricity, the Drover exploded as every single nanobot in it collectively detonated. The Drover inside the base managed to reactivate itself enough that the explosion wiped out all of it's nanobots, leaving no trace of itself for them to find and possibly weaponize.

The Mother Goo shrieked and screeched as it felt the brief, but sudden and intense pain of it's Drovers' deaths. Retreating into it's hiding place, it combed through it's programming to try and recover from the sudden, traumatic data that it recovered from the final moments of the two Drovers. If it had a heart, it would have described the experience as the first heartache it had ever experienced. It truly wished more of it could have been there for the Drovers, maybe they would have survived. It had been wishing that Star Fox was wrong about the Cornerian military and it was hoping to build an interspecies relationship between itself and them. How wrong it was to not listen to their warnings. It's thoughts went back to it's Drovers, it's children, and how horrible it felt giving the self-destruct command to it's Drovers, essentially telling them to commit suicide. It was acting on military instincts encoded into it's basic programming from years of evolving as part of the hive-mind, and now that it was an individual, and it had given an order exactly as it did back then, it had a very different reaction from what it was used to.

~x~X~x~X~x~

_How could our __week__ possibly get worse_, Meta-X thought to itself as it retreated deeper into the hole. Since that incident, at least 5 to 7 days had to have passed, it hadn't been paying to much attention. It had spent most of that time just resting and recuperating. The seven Drovers that had stuck with it were currently "hibernating" to conserve energy, resting in the Mother Goo's protective embrace. It had eventually scavenged enough resources to split into a second Mother, who was in the hole with them, hibernating as well. Recent events forced it to reactivate some protocols, such as upgrading the Drovers to their original size, the size of a small car, while the second Mother Goo had been upscaled to the size of a small building, while the original Mother Goo had split down to the same size. The whoosh of engines overhead prompted Meta-X to take a peek outside. It registered the familiar signature of one Arwing out of the two Arwings present. _Well, at least our day just got better_, it thought as a single Mother Goo slithered back out, flowing toward the place where the two Arwings were going to land.

Krystal hopped out of her Arwing, landing gracefully while in the Arwing next to her, Katt slipped out of her Arwing and landed on her rear. "Dammit that hurts." Krystal, without missing a beat, joked, "And I thought cats always landed on their feet." Katt flipped her off, then attempted to justify her clumsiness, "I slept like shit last night and didn't get any coffee this morning, you sure you couldn't have gotten Fara or Fay to go with you?" Krystal chuckled, "Fay was up all night running system checks on ROB with Slippy, while Fara was... well she wasn't keen on going anywhere at the time." Katt grunted and got on her feet while Krystal looked around. When she didn't see it, she was about to suggest going when the familiar whirring and beeping of her favorite protean attracted her attention. Katt glanced in the direction of the whirring and noticed the large black and blue mass of nanoscopic technology flowing toward them with haste. It slowed down when it got closer to the duo and when it reached Krystal, it extended a large, thick pseudopod. It brushed up against Krystal, who grinned and wrapped her arms around it. Katt, who didn't have much experience with Meta-X, stared ahead, eyes wide, before shaking her head and asking the Cerinian vixen, "You sure that's safe?" Krystal turned to face the pink feline as Meta-X gently wrapped small tentacles around her paws as if holding her hands, "Yes, it remembers me very well."

"So, why does it act like that around you?" Katt asked, somewhat disturbed by the fact that Krystal was essentially cuddling with sentient goo capable of dissolving various materials, a fact she learned against her will from an overly excited Slippy. As two tentacles graced Krystal's back in a hugging gesture, she replied, "I'm not sure, but I think I might have imprinted on it when it was much, much smaller and less mature." Meta-X beeped and buzzed at Krystal. She checked her wrist com-link and the binary translator told her what it was saying, "So much has happened in the past week. We fear that we won't be safe here anymore." Krystal frowned, "I wish we could do something about that. Unfortunately, there wouldn't be room for you now." Meta-X's pseudopods seemed to hold onto her a bit tighter and Krystal thought about what to say, "...Um, tell me what happened." Meta-X released it's grip on Krystal and receded a bit. Krystal opened her binary translator up and gestured for Katt to sit next to her. Wary of Meta-X, Katt sat cross-legged next to Krystal as Meta-X relayed to the duo the events of the past week.

"You! Get a squad ready. Star Fox is on Katina and we've been ordered to jump them before they leave, Wolf's orders." The grunt saluted Leon, then hurried away to rally the troops. He then contacted Wolf and asked him, "So boss, we joining the assault?" Wolf's answer was nothing if not straightforward, "We're leading the assault. Prepare the Wolven and tell Panther to get off his lazy ass." A third voice, a sly, low tone of voice, intruded, "I am not lazy, I'm conserving energy for the next flight." Wolf made a most audible growl, "Whatever, Panther, just get your ass down to the hangar, we leave in 20 minutes." Panther's reply was vaguely sarcastic, "Aye, aye, boss."


End file.
